Walk Details

Hello Team Hungry For Life,

The 2009 NSMC Cancer WALK, presented by Danversbank, is just a month away! The planning and fine-tuning for the event is underway. Listed below is some preliminary information about the WALK.

Free parking will be available at Shetland Properties on Congress Street, and shuttle buses will take walkers to Salem Willows Park starting at 7:00am.

We will meet at 8:00am at the start/finish line~ look for HFL team shirts. (Same spot as last year.) There are also return shuttle bus trips to the parking lots. The after party begins at 10:30am at the Salem Knights of Columbus. (Same spot as last year.)

Live entertainment will entertain us along the route.

This year's WALK takes place on Father's Day and just three weeks after the opening of the new Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center in Danvers. It will be especially meaningful for many families that have been affected by cancer.

See you soon!

1 Month Countdown

The WALK is just about a month away and thus far, we have raised $3865.00! We should be proud. We are still one of the Top Teams!

Team Hungry For Life still has a long way to go to reach our team goal. If you don't want to create your own fundraising page, please pass on the team page to anyone you think would be interested in donating to the new cancer center.

The team shirts will be mailed out in just a couple weeks. If you haven't mailed me your payment, please do so ASAP. Email me (bettslevine@metrocast.net) if you need my address or your shirt total.

Have a nice Memorial Day weekend. I am looking forward to seeing everyone next month!

Katie

Top Team

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are currently one of the top fundraising teams. We have raised $2745.00 collectively thus far! I wanted to give a special shout out to team members Laura Cobb, Heather Conner and Deanna Zaccaria (who created their own personal fundraising pages) for already raising lots of money towards our goal of 10K. We are getting closer. It means so much! Way to go Team Hungry For Life!

To see the top teams, go to this page and look in the right column.

Fundraising Time

We have to start thinking about raising money towards our team goal. There are a few different ways of raising funds:

1. You can forward the Team Hungry For Life fundraising page (www.firstgiving.com/teamhungryforlife ~ see link in right sidebar) onto all of your friends, family and co-workers that you think will contribute to our goal of 10K. No donation is too small.

2. Instead of passing on the team page, you can create your own fundraising page. Go to www.firstgiving.com/nsmcwalk to create. Just be sure to join Team Hungry For Life so all of the funds you raise go towards the team goal. Creating your own personal fundraising page may increase your overall total because friends/family may be more inclined to donate to you personally.

3. You can skip the online stuff and use a traditional sponsor sheet. Collecting donations this way is great for those who want to give but are not Internet savvy and do not wish to donate online, or just don't know how. If you need a sponsor sheet, email me and I can mail it to you.

Lastly, I realize that in this economy it may be difficult to raise lots of money. I even thought of lowering our team goal of 10K, but in the end decided against it. We have almost 200 confirmed walkers this year, so I think it's very feasible. If everyone who walks raises at least $50, we will easily succeed.

All I am asking is that you do the best you can. I am sincerely just happy that we will have a huge sea of blue, walking proud for D. Rich again.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Also, if you ordered a team t-shirt, please send payment to me as soon as possible. If you need my address and/or your total, email me (bettslevine@metrocast.net). I will be picking up t-shirts the first week in June and mailing them out immediately after that.

Lastly, it's really not too late to order a shirt. Because I knew there would be a few stragglers, I arranged one more order before the WALK. If you want a t-shirt, let me know.

Thanks,
Katie

Deadline

The deadline for Team Hungry For Life t-shirts is next Thursday (April 30th). Please let me know what sizes you need if you plan on walking in June. (See size information in my last post.) If you don't want to walk but still want a shirt, that works too. Lemme know!

T-Shirts

Hello Team Hungry For Life,
It's time to talk t-shirts! (Whether you are attending the WALK or not, you can still purchase a team t-shirt if you'd like.)
The t-shirts this year will be royal blue in color and come in youth and adult sizes. They have the NSMC logo on the front breast area, and We Are Hungry For Life on the back.
Please contact me to order t-shirts (bettslevine@metrocast.net). They will be priced at $7 each~ this includes shipping to you. XXL and XXXL will be $8 each.

Available youth sizes are: Youth XS, Youth S, Youth M, Youth L and Youth XL.
Available adult sizes are: Adult S, Adult M, Adult L, Adult XXL and Adult XXXL.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me. Looking forward to seeing you all in June. Thanks!
Katie

Old Photos

These pics were sent to my sister Mary by Kristen Powers. Thanks Kristen!

Breaking News

Last summer, NSMC made the decision to implement a $15 Walker Registration Fee to continue to direct more money to the NSMC Cancer Center, their patients and their families. In addition, these monies were needed to offset WALK event production expenses, and the printing and postage for the 3,500+ walkers who attend the event each and every year. These kinds of registration fees are in line with other similar walks, but as it has turned out - the timing was not terrific.

Who could have anticipated that the national and local economy would be under such stress? Each month has brought additional news of job layoffs and tough times all around. In early February, as the first NSMC Cancer WALK mailings arrived in households throughout the North Shore, they heard about the hardship the registration fee might create for us, our teammates and our donors.

So, they will eliminate the registration fee for 2009 and hope that we will join with them this year to WALK, bring friends and raise as many contributions as we can in support of the new NSMC Cancer Center. Now more than ever, they need our help.

If you have already registered on-line or by mail, they will be happy to refund the $15 fee to you, or you may allocate this money toward your fundraising goal. Please call Tracey Chalifour at 978-825-6129 (email tchalifour@partners.org) or Rose Fisher at 978-825-6116 (email rfisher3@partners.org) if you would like a refund.

For those of you that have not yet registered for the 2009 NSMC Cancer WALK, please click here to register online.

Thanks!

WALK Talk 2009

Hello Team Hungry For Life,

I know it seems really early to start thinking about the WALK this year, which falls on Father's Day (Sunday, June 21st)~ but it's only about 4 months away. I have already begun the beginning phases of planning and hope that this year we are even bigger~ walking proud again for D. Rich!

I just booked the Salem Knights of Columbus on Monday. It is the same hall that we had our after-party at last year. The good news is that I reserved it for 10:30 am, which means we will be walking earlier than last year (and with the masses!). I am thinking we should probably meet at 8 am, same time/same place. Last year we had about 100 walkers and I think we'll have an even bigger team this June, partly in thanks to our Facebook page and being able to spread the word more efficiently there.

Anyhow, just one more quick note regarding the fundraising aspect of the WALK. This year, there is a slight change with the registration part. It seems they are charging each individual who registers online to create their own fundraising page. (Last year, there was no charge.) The fee is $15 if you register now, and $20 after June 1st.
If you want to make your own page, feel free to do so. Lisa Tocco created her own page last year and singlehandedly raised over $1K. The benefit of creating your own page is that it may encourage your family/friends to donate.
If you don't want to make your own page, feel free to pass on the Team Hungry For Life page to your family/friends. It's entirely up to you. All donations (whether made through your personal page or through the HFL team page) will be counted towards the Team Hungry For Life goal of $10K, just make sure that if you do create your own fundraising page, you specify that you want to join Team Hungry For Life during the set-up.

As far as our goal of $10K, I figure that we raised over $7K last year~ there's no reason we shouldn't aim high!
If you have any questions or concerns, please email me (bettslevine@metrocast.net).

Katie